Del Rio let go after nine seasons

JACKSONVILLE — Jack Del Rio spoke with the players one final time after being fired as the Jaguars’ coach on Tuesday.

“He said unfortunately he didn’t win a championship and it was time for a change for someone (else) to have a shot and it was something he understood,” middle linebacker Paul Posluszny said.

Del Rio was fired by owner Wayne Weaver with five games left in his ninth season after failing to win a division title, much less a championship. He won just one playoff game.

Del Rio finished with a 68-71 record, including 3-8 this season. He is the only coach in NFL history to survive into his ninth season without winning a division title.

Defensive coordinator Mel Tucker was named the interim coach to finish out the season.

Owner Wayne Weaver indicated he would have fired Del Rio earlier, but said he wanted to announce the sale of the team and the firing at the same time. He said it would have been confusing to the fans to fire the coach last week and then announce a sale this week.

Jaguars players said they had formed a bond with Del Rio and were sad to see him go.

“I’ve got a lot of love and respect for Jack,” said tight end Marcedes Lewis. “He’s always shot it to me straight. He’s always treated us like men. He provided us with a vision.”

Running back Maurice Jones-Drew said, “When we found out this morning, a lot of guys were upset. He’s a players’ coach. We just feel like we let him down.”

The players also insisted that being a players’ coach is a positive, though it’s sometimes viewed as not being in command of the locker room.

“No, not at all,” running back Montell Owens said when he was asked if Del Rio was too much of a players’ coach. “As a coach you should respect your players. You should wrap your arms around a guy. That’s important. That’s how you get the best out of guys.”

Defensive end Jeremy Mincey said, “You can never really be too much of a players’ coach. A lot of people think Bill Belichick is not a players’ coach. But he’s a players’ coach. That’s how you get it done. You have to have a relationship with your players. Nobody wants to play for somebody you don’t respect. Respect is the first level of trust. If you’ve got trust, you’ve got a bond. You’ve got a bond and now you’re winning.”

Mincey said he went up to Del Rio after he talked to the team and said it was an honor to play for him.

But the Jaguars didn’t win enough under Del Rio and are now on the verge of their fourth consecutive non-playoff season.

Del Rio teams were noted for late-season collapses, questionable clock management and not enough attention to detail. This year, they had 10 men on the field on a critical fourth-down play against New Orleans and several times had 12 men on the field.

In Carolina, they weren’t lined up at the line of scrimmage after a replay call with 16 seconds left and got only one play off before the game ended. Trailing in Cleveland a week ago, they let the clock run from 41 to eight seconds while running one play.

In 2006 and last year, the team started 8-5 and lost the last three games. In 2010, the Jaguars were 7-5 and lost the last four. They failed to make the playoffs all three years.

Del Rio’s handling of quarterbacks also was controversial. He cut Byron Leftwich nine days before the start of the 2007 season and David Garrard five days before the start of this season. Both moves were surprising. After cutting Garrard, he gave Luke McCown only two games before benching him after he threw four interceptions against the Jets.

Del Rio’s motivational ploys also backfired at times, notably when he put an ax in the locker room with a tree stump in his first season in 2003 with the message that the team should “keep chopping wood.” Punter Chris Hanson was lost for the season when the ax hit him in the shin.

Still, the players took the blame on Tuesday for not playing better.

“I always look at it as if it’s not the fault of the head coach,” Posluszny said. “As players, we came up a little short.”

But even Del Rio admitted Monday in what turned out to be his final press conference as a Jaguars coach that it always comes down to the coach and the quarterback.

“I think clearly the head coach and the quarterback are the two people that are directly tied to winning and losing and if you don’t win, then those are the two people that are going to hear it the most,” Del Rio said.

While Mincey supported Del Rio, he’s ready to move on.

“It’s a new era of Jaguars football,” he said. “New ownership. New everything. Sometimes change is better. Nothing stays the same in life. The only constant in life is change.”